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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 99185:  USS E-2 underway prior to World War I

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS E-2 (Submarine # 25, later SS-25), 1912-1922. Originally named Sturgeon

USS E-2, a 287-ton E-1 class coastal submarine built at Quincy, Massachusetts, was commissioned in February 1912. While under construction she was called Sturgeon, but was renamed in November 1911. Employed on experimental and training duties during her early service, E-2 operated in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in January-April 1914, and in Florida waters in February-May 1915. Following a hydrogen explosion in January 1916 that killed four men and injured others, she was decommissioned and used for battery tests. E-2 returned to active service in March 1918 and conducted anti-U-Boat patrols off the U.S. East Coast during the rest of World War I. Again used for training after the conflict's end, the submarine was decommissioned in October 1921 and sold in April 1922.

This page features all the views we have related to USS E-2 (Submarine # 25), which was named Sturgeon while under construction.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 99186

USS Sturgeon
(Submarine # 25)

Underway, probably during trials, circa late summer or fall 1911. This submarine was renamed E-2 in November 1911, prior to commissioning.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99185

USS E-2
(Submarine # 25)

Fine screen halftone reproduction of a photograph of the submarine underway prior to World War I.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 505 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 41947

USS E-2
(Submarine # 25)

Underway, probably in New York Harbor during the October 1912 naval review.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 78919

USS E-2
(Submarine # 25)

Crewmembers atop the submarine's conning tower, after returning from a patrol during World War I.

Courtesy of the Submarine Force Library and Museum, Groton, Connecticut, 1972.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 96KB; 525 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 78920

USS Helvetia (SP-3096)


Under sail, as seen from the submarine USS E-2 (SS-25), during an anti-submarine patrol in 1918.
Helvetia, a former civilian schooner, was intended to serve as decoy ship to entice German submarines to surface and attack her with gunfire, hereupon the U.S. Navy submarine, following submerged, would torpedo the enemy U-Boat.

Courtesy of the Submarine Force Library and Museum, Groton, Connecticut, 1972.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 445 pixels

 


The submarines on the left side of the following photograph are probably USS E-2 and her sister,
USS
E-1 (Submarine # 24):

Photo #: NH 78926

"U.S. Submarines awaiting Orders"


Halftone reproduction, printed on a postal card, of a photograph of five submarines nested together prior to World War I. The three "boats" at right are (from center to right): USS D-2 (Submarine # 18); USS D-1 (Submarine # 17); and USS D-3 (Submarine # 19). The two at left are probably (in no particular order) USS E-1 (Submarine # 24) and USS E-2 (Submarine # 25).

Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Medical Service Corps), 1973.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 505 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 17 March 2004